Even Jason Benetti is running out of ways to sugarcoat Tigers' slide into misery

Jason Benetti is almost universally loved by Tigers fans. When Detroit signed him away from his hometown White Sox after the 2023 season, it was unironically heralded as their best offseason signing. Given how terribly sleepy the Tigers' broadcast was prior to his arrival, Benetti added a jolt of life that happened to correspond perfectly with the team's first postseason run in a decade.

Benetti isn't known as a particularly harsh critic of the teams he calls — it makes sense that team-employed announcers would be a little nervous to be overly critical — but even he couldn't hide his disappointment with the 2026 Tigers on Sunday, when they lost to the White Sox 2-1.

"Welp..something has to change. This is not at all what we expected," he said. "The month of May has been awful."

Fans could feel his patience eroding throughout the series, too. When Miguel Vargas walked off the first game of the series, his exasperation was clear on the call.

And who could blame him? Certainly not Tigers fans, some of whom are probably wishing that Benetti would be even more critical.

Tigers' awful performance is even getting to ever-optimistic play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti

Benetti is a professional. He'll be back for his next game with a smile on his face and the same obscure movie or musical references, trying to make the Tigers an at least somewhat watchable team, and no one can fault him for that, even if it's hard to buy into levity right now. As gloomy as fans have been — and have every right to be — Benetti can't indulge in the same way when it's the Tigers cutting his paychecks.

But that doesn't mean he can't tell it like it is when things are as truly bad as they were on Sunday night. This isn't what we expected. The Tigers haven't been healthy. They promised improvements we haven't seen. At this point, it seems impossible they'll be able to crawl out of this hole and turn back into a team that's even remotely competitive.

The Tigers, thankfully, haven't been the type to fully censor their broadcasters. No disciplinary action was taken after Dan Dickerson's now-infamous "F— this game recap" last year. But on the off-chance that the Tigers get Oriole-levels sensitive with Benetti? Tigers fans will be comiing to his aid in the blink of an eye.

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